Combined heat and power has an important role in Poland

The World Energy Council Polish Member Committee, supported by the former Polish Ministry of Economy, now the Ministry of Energy, recently held a conference entitled: ‘Role of combined heat and power (CHP) in Polish Energy Policy to 2050’. Henryk Majchrzak, President of the Polish Member Committee, said: “The high-efficiency of CHP means that it can make a very significant contribution to improving our National Power System.”

Tomasz Dąbrowski, counsellor in the new Ministry of Energy, announced that Poland’s priority projects to 2050 would include CHP because of its high efficiency. Other speakers spoke on the role of the CHP as a fundamental element in efficient heating systems, the integration of CHP into the National Power System, support mechanisms for CHP and assessment of the cost of support mechanisms and social benefits resulting from the development of CHP.

The recommendations of the conference were:

• A new mechanism of support for CHP should be developed for the systemic support of the use of heat accumulation in order to increase the volume of production of electricity from national power plants.
• Increased production of district cooling to increase electricity production in domestic power plants and reduce electricity consumption by traditional air conditioners.
• Development of technical adjustments to the national standards for CHP units so that they can operate in condensing mode in order to provide power system services. The experience of transmission system operators shows that such technology would allow for CHP units to offer power system services whilst maintaining attractive prices.
• A recovery plan for domestic CHP units which takes into account the need for the balancing of power from the National Electricity System and the need for heat balancing demand.
• Initiate new projects for domestic integrated power supply systems for electricity, heat and gas.
• Relevant provisions to the Polish “Building Law” act to ensure a greater share and use of district heating to buildings.

Source: Worldenergy.org